an artist book by adia grace weaver (jan. 2020)
the moral greyscale of the noir genre and aesthetics of crime at large have come to define the ways we visually conceptualize virtue, deciphering sense and meaning from the spaces between lines of white, grey, and black.
we choose our realities from these ambiguities, constantly appealing to collectivity and sameness through knowledge-sharing and indices of understanding. with the digitization of varying lexicons of interdimensional experience, orienting ourselves within our social landscapes, the visualization of diaspora too renders increased interface with systems of documentation.
are such exercises in representation exploitative? who can exploit whom?
inclusion facilitates a sort of institutionalization, making failure of these practices a sort of offense, designating dissententers as enemy to the state of sharing.
this project explores the assembly of new systems of entropic chaos, centered on unsystematic misunderstanding, failing to communicate by lingering in the ambiguity of image; much like our grim antiheroes, grinning criminals, and the voracious appetite of a fascinated audience, finding solace in the veiled reveries of a uniquely american nightmare.